Review: Culture Shock: Norway
Feb. 27th, 2016 10:43 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
livingdebI found Elizabeth Su-Dale's Culture Shock! A Guide to Customs and Etiquette: Norway (1995) recommended by a few sources, so I picked it up.
One of the mysterious things about this book is who the audience is or where the author is from. When you're talking about culture shock, you're going to be comparing the new culture to the old culture, and I couldn't tell where the old culture is. The language sounds more British than English. The book was published in Singapore. I couldn't find anything about the author online--but then there was a short description at the end of the book. I think she's from Singapore. So it makes sense that some of the assumptions about where I might be from are off. For example, one might be shocked that Norwegians drink water right out of the tap. They don't boil their drinking water like people in some other places do.
"If you are single and lonely, you can learn to read the advertisements in the local dailies as well as some other newspapers. You will be amazed at the explicit statements of longing and desire for companionship. ... In the cities, there are the usual cafeterias and singles bars where you can hang out, if you wish." The usual cafeterias?
Part of the fun is that the book was published in 1995, and it sounds like it was published even earlier. The writing reminds me of golly-gee 'fifties writing but also enthusiastic hippie 'sixties writing.
The common potato ... is so much used in Norwegian kitchens that no Norwegian can conceive of a main meal without the ubiquitous potato. It is eaten boiled, baked, fried as chips, sliced and baked in a fricassee, served in soups... So be prepared when you are confronted with the potato in Norway--do not throw up your hands in despair and say you need rice, not potatoes; you need pasta, not potatoes; you need greens, not potatoes. Potatoes are what they have more than enough of in Norway and potatoes are what you will get, so learn to enjoy them.
Okay, Mom.
I did learn a few shocking things:
* When you move into an unfurnished dwelling, it might not have ceiling lamps, just switches and wires.
* When washing dishes by hand, a Norwegian generally "scrubs the dishes with a brush, rinses them in the soapy water, then takes them out of the water, still dripping soap, and places them on the dish rack to dry. ... The detergent is edible, anyway, and it will drip-dry."
* One of the items she recommends for your kitchen: "A birch whisk for smooth sauces is really a most useful tool to ensure no unsightly lumps in soups or sauces that use flour as a thickener." That sounds like a wire whisk to me. But made of birch? I can't imagine it!
And I learned other interesting things. For example:
* Lillehammer, where the 1994 Olympics were held, is in Norway.
* Bente Roestad saw an octopus while on vacation in Greece and created Inky, the Octopus, as a character in stories she told her five-year-old nephew. This became a book series about sea characters worried about pollution. Their popularity led to the formation of The Inky Club for "young environmental detectives" age 5 - 13. Members investigate environmental conditions in their neighborhoods, write articles for newspapers and contact politicians and industrial plants. And membership is open to kids all around the world. (Sadly, I can't find much on this organization today. But I like the idea!)
* Thor Heyerdahl sailed not only Kon-Tiki (to prove it would have been possible for Latin Americans to settle in Polynesia), which I read about as a child, but also other voyages and explorations.
* Roald Amundson and his team, the first to reach the South Pole, is also from Norway.
* It is forbidden to physically punish children.
* There is freedom of speech, freedom of the press, and gender equality. The freedom of speech and especially freedom of the press sound real, but the gender equality sounds like old-timey sexist ideas of gender equality. "No one is permitted to strike a woman. Abuse of women at home or at work is frowned upon." And only men have to serve in the military.
* At age 13, you can work light jobs and fill out your own tax forms. At 15 you can control your own income, appeal child welfare decisions in the courts, choose your own schooling, and be punished for breaking the law.
* The road systems include an "extensive network of car ferries, road tunnels, and bridges across fjords. ... dozens of long tunnels, either through a mountain or under the sea, substitute a ferry service. On some tourist routes, the old road across the mountain is kept open during summer for nostalgic tourists."
* The average Norwegian spends an hour a day reading more than one newspaper. The newspapers aren't exactly biased, but they do have a focus like a trade, a region, or things of interest to members of a political party. "However, newspapers have never functioned simply as mouthpieces for their own party. Sometimes, it was the paper that influenced the party rather than the other way around."
* They have a constitutional monarchy, and for the first time I get why people might want a monarch. Not being elected, they don't have to appease their party--they look at the whole nation. "King Håkon's resounding 'No' to German demands on 10 April 1940 stands sharply illuminated in the history of monarchy and of Norway. The Germans had wanted to install a puppet government in Norway headed by a man called Quisling. But the king refused to acknowledge this act. His statement to the government was, 'The decisions is yours. But if you choose to accept the German demands, I must abdicate.'
* Alfred Nobel, a Swede, stipulated that unlike the scientific and literature prizes, the Nobel peace prize was to be decided by Norwegians.
* The air is dry; it's good to have hand cream and lip gloss.
* There are lots of classes and club meetings in the winter--in the summer, people are adventuring, working on their gardens, and otherwise enjoying the outdoors.
* The Freia chocolate factory was "immortalised in Norwegian-American author Roald Dahl's book, Charlie and the Chocolate Factory." Or a fictionalized version of it, anyway. But the real factory has lunch rooms decorated by Edvard Munch (Norwegian painter of "The Scream," among other things) and the company created Freia Park, full of sculptures by Gustav Vigeland. (Hmm, this park is somehow not called that in any of the tourbooks I have but instead Frogner Park or Vigelands Park.)
* The "stave church, of which 30 remain, only in Norway[, is] the finest expression of wooden architecture. No nails are used in the contruction of the stave church which has withstood the ravages of wind and weather for 800-900 years. Norway is the only country in which wooden church architecture was developed to such an extent that medieval churches could be preserved up to the present time."
There was a whole chapter on food and drink. Like all human cultures through the history of time (probably), they have alcohol:
* beer, especially pils
* aquavit - very strong potato whiskey with caraway and other spices
* wine (mostly imported)
* gløgg - hot spiced red wine
But also:
* coffee - strong and black
* tea - "Today, there is a new trend among younger Norwegians who perceive tea-drinking as a healthier alternative to coffee. Earlier, tea was served only on formal occasions and also to the infirm." Heh.
* milk - drunk daily
* hot cocoa
And she mentions these foods:
* chocolate
* pålegg - something you put on bread; I knew they ate open-faced sandwiches--they have a name for what we would call the filling of a closed-face sandwich
* potatoes
* cheese - Gouda, Jarlesberk,goat cheese, and more; "The most Norwegian of all cheeses is red cheese. Called Gudbrandsdal, red cheese ... has a clean, sweet, caramelised flavour."
* salad - may contain flowers, cabbage
* mushrooms - they grow in the forests
* berries - they grow in the mountains and include blueberries, lingonberries (which are apparently wild cranberries), cloudberries, and raspberries. I can see why Dahl couldn't resist making up snozzberries as well.
* bread - mostly whole grain, flat, and often crispy
* fish - especially "cod, herring, trout, brisling, salmon, and mackeral," preserved in various ways
* Finnish Beef - thinly shaved reindeer meat from the Sami culture up north
* salted lamb ribs
* meatballs in brown sauce
* lamb stew with cabbage
* fishballs in white sauce - "For the Asian foreigner used to fishballs made wholly from fishmeat and boiled in soup, Norwegian fishballs are a rude shock. The Asian fishball is springy in texture and contains only fish, salt, and water. The Norwegian fishball is soft and milky, both in colour and flavour. It is an acquired taste, but you could get fond of it."
* potato and meat stew
* smørgåsbord - this idea of a buffet table may have started as Swedish potlucks.
Huh, no mention of porridge.
The author proposes the following reasons for Norway having one of the lowest crime rates in the world:
* minimal gap between the haves and have nots
* "emphasis on social justice makes Norway and Norwegians some of the most equitable administrators of justice"
* censorship of television to reduce exposure to violence
* deeply ingrained sense of human rights
This book is one of a series of Culture Shock books on various countries including the US--and Singapore. I may check out more of these in the future.
One of the mysterious things about this book is who the audience is or where the author is from. When you're talking about culture shock, you're going to be comparing the new culture to the old culture, and I couldn't tell where the old culture is. The language sounds more British than English. The book was published in Singapore. I couldn't find anything about the author online--but then there was a short description at the end of the book. I think she's from Singapore. So it makes sense that some of the assumptions about where I might be from are off. For example, one might be shocked that Norwegians drink water right out of the tap. They don't boil their drinking water like people in some other places do.
"If you are single and lonely, you can learn to read the advertisements in the local dailies as well as some other newspapers. You will be amazed at the explicit statements of longing and desire for companionship. ... In the cities, there are the usual cafeterias and singles bars where you can hang out, if you wish." The usual cafeterias?
Part of the fun is that the book was published in 1995, and it sounds like it was published even earlier. The writing reminds me of golly-gee 'fifties writing but also enthusiastic hippie 'sixties writing.
The common potato ... is so much used in Norwegian kitchens that no Norwegian can conceive of a main meal without the ubiquitous potato. It is eaten boiled, baked, fried as chips, sliced and baked in a fricassee, served in soups... So be prepared when you are confronted with the potato in Norway--do not throw up your hands in despair and say you need rice, not potatoes; you need pasta, not potatoes; you need greens, not potatoes. Potatoes are what they have more than enough of in Norway and potatoes are what you will get, so learn to enjoy them.
Okay, Mom.
I did learn a few shocking things:
* When you move into an unfurnished dwelling, it might not have ceiling lamps, just switches and wires.
* When washing dishes by hand, a Norwegian generally "scrubs the dishes with a brush, rinses them in the soapy water, then takes them out of the water, still dripping soap, and places them on the dish rack to dry. ... The detergent is edible, anyway, and it will drip-dry."
* One of the items she recommends for your kitchen: "A birch whisk for smooth sauces is really a most useful tool to ensure no unsightly lumps in soups or sauces that use flour as a thickener." That sounds like a wire whisk to me. But made of birch? I can't imagine it!
And I learned other interesting things. For example:
* Lillehammer, where the 1994 Olympics were held, is in Norway.
* Bente Roestad saw an octopus while on vacation in Greece and created Inky, the Octopus, as a character in stories she told her five-year-old nephew. This became a book series about sea characters worried about pollution. Their popularity led to the formation of The Inky Club for "young environmental detectives" age 5 - 13. Members investigate environmental conditions in their neighborhoods, write articles for newspapers and contact politicians and industrial plants. And membership is open to kids all around the world. (Sadly, I can't find much on this organization today. But I like the idea!)
* Thor Heyerdahl sailed not only Kon-Tiki (to prove it would have been possible for Latin Americans to settle in Polynesia), which I read about as a child, but also other voyages and explorations.
* Roald Amundson and his team, the first to reach the South Pole, is also from Norway.
* It is forbidden to physically punish children.
* There is freedom of speech, freedom of the press, and gender equality. The freedom of speech and especially freedom of the press sound real, but the gender equality sounds like old-timey sexist ideas of gender equality. "No one is permitted to strike a woman. Abuse of women at home or at work is frowned upon." And only men have to serve in the military.
* At age 13, you can work light jobs and fill out your own tax forms. At 15 you can control your own income, appeal child welfare decisions in the courts, choose your own schooling, and be punished for breaking the law.
* The road systems include an "extensive network of car ferries, road tunnels, and bridges across fjords. ... dozens of long tunnels, either through a mountain or under the sea, substitute a ferry service. On some tourist routes, the old road across the mountain is kept open during summer for nostalgic tourists."
* The average Norwegian spends an hour a day reading more than one newspaper. The newspapers aren't exactly biased, but they do have a focus like a trade, a region, or things of interest to members of a political party. "However, newspapers have never functioned simply as mouthpieces for their own party. Sometimes, it was the paper that influenced the party rather than the other way around."
* They have a constitutional monarchy, and for the first time I get why people might want a monarch. Not being elected, they don't have to appease their party--they look at the whole nation. "King Håkon's resounding 'No' to German demands on 10 April 1940 stands sharply illuminated in the history of monarchy and of Norway. The Germans had wanted to install a puppet government in Norway headed by a man called Quisling. But the king refused to acknowledge this act. His statement to the government was, 'The decisions is yours. But if you choose to accept the German demands, I must abdicate.'
* Alfred Nobel, a Swede, stipulated that unlike the scientific and literature prizes, the Nobel peace prize was to be decided by Norwegians.
* The air is dry; it's good to have hand cream and lip gloss.
* There are lots of classes and club meetings in the winter--in the summer, people are adventuring, working on their gardens, and otherwise enjoying the outdoors.
* The Freia chocolate factory was "immortalised in Norwegian-American author Roald Dahl's book, Charlie and the Chocolate Factory." Or a fictionalized version of it, anyway. But the real factory has lunch rooms decorated by Edvard Munch (Norwegian painter of "The Scream," among other things) and the company created Freia Park, full of sculptures by Gustav Vigeland. (Hmm, this park is somehow not called that in any of the tourbooks I have but instead Frogner Park or Vigelands Park.)
* The "stave church, of which 30 remain, only in Norway[, is] the finest expression of wooden architecture. No nails are used in the contruction of the stave church which has withstood the ravages of wind and weather for 800-900 years. Norway is the only country in which wooden church architecture was developed to such an extent that medieval churches could be preserved up to the present time."
There was a whole chapter on food and drink. Like all human cultures through the history of time (probably), they have alcohol:
* beer, especially pils
* aquavit - very strong potato whiskey with caraway and other spices
* wine (mostly imported)
* gløgg - hot spiced red wine
But also:
* coffee - strong and black
* tea - "Today, there is a new trend among younger Norwegians who perceive tea-drinking as a healthier alternative to coffee. Earlier, tea was served only on formal occasions and also to the infirm." Heh.
* milk - drunk daily
* hot cocoa
And she mentions these foods:
* chocolate
* pålegg - something you put on bread; I knew they ate open-faced sandwiches--they have a name for what we would call the filling of a closed-face sandwich
* potatoes
* cheese - Gouda, Jarlesberk,goat cheese, and more; "The most Norwegian of all cheeses is red cheese. Called Gudbrandsdal, red cheese ... has a clean, sweet, caramelised flavour."
* salad - may contain flowers, cabbage
* mushrooms - they grow in the forests
* berries - they grow in the mountains and include blueberries, lingonberries (which are apparently wild cranberries), cloudberries, and raspberries. I can see why Dahl couldn't resist making up snozzberries as well.
* bread - mostly whole grain, flat, and often crispy
* fish - especially "cod, herring, trout, brisling, salmon, and mackeral," preserved in various ways
* Finnish Beef - thinly shaved reindeer meat from the Sami culture up north
* salted lamb ribs
* meatballs in brown sauce
* lamb stew with cabbage
* fishballs in white sauce - "For the Asian foreigner used to fishballs made wholly from fishmeat and boiled in soup, Norwegian fishballs are a rude shock. The Asian fishball is springy in texture and contains only fish, salt, and water. The Norwegian fishball is soft and milky, both in colour and flavour. It is an acquired taste, but you could get fond of it."
* potato and meat stew
* smørgåsbord - this idea of a buffet table may have started as Swedish potlucks.
Huh, no mention of porridge.
The author proposes the following reasons for Norway having one of the lowest crime rates in the world:
* minimal gap between the haves and have nots
* "emphasis on social justice makes Norway and Norwegians some of the most equitable administrators of justice"
* censorship of television to reduce exposure to violence
* deeply ingrained sense of human rights
This book is one of a series of Culture Shock books on various countries including the US--and Singapore. I may check out more of these in the future.
no subject
on 2016-02-28 07:09 am (UTC)On the food front: Potatoes - yup. Basically in Norway dinner is boiled potatoes with whatever else you might have on hand. Sometimes sausages, sometimes fish, sometimes eggs - but my absolute favorite was the fishballs. They're not at all like you might imagine them to be - they're completely silky smooth in texture and you serve them boiled in a white sauce or gravy with (of course) boiled potatoes and, if you're lucky, some boiled carrots too.
I also loved the brown cheese - which isn't like any cheese we have here - it tastes more like slightly sweet caramel than cheese - and served on Norwegian bread with Norwegian milk - yum! And the milk... OMG - I've always HATED milk, but the milk there was absolutely delicious! I think it may be because the cows are all grass fed, but it's sweet and amazing.
Well, I could go on forever, but some of the things that surprised me about Norwegian culture were:
- They are very open about sexuality. In fact, it's common practice to wait until the first child is on the way before getting married.
- People drink like fish, but I NEVER EVER saw anyone drink and drive. If you get caught drinking and driving, even once, you lose your license for life, so people just don't do it.
- They have something called "allemannsrett" which basically translates to "all men's right." It's a law that allows public access to all lands for transportation, camping etc. The law holds whether the land is publicly or privately owned. No such thing as Private Property Keep Out signs in Norway!
- All women get a government stipend for each child that they have. So basically, everybody gets child welfare regardless of economic circumstances.
- At the time I was there, daily showers were considered to be very unhealthy. Seriously, my host family actually did an intervention on me because they were concerned about my showering habit! I'm not quite sure how often they bathed, but I don't remember seeing my host mother take a shower more than about once a month! I took up swimming each day after school, so I took my showers at the pool and the issue with my host family went away, but it was very interesting.
- Wearing makeup or shaving (either legs or armpits) was considered to be unseemly - something only a prostitute would do.
- They have a state religion (Lutheran) but there is a saying that most people are only inside a church three times in their entire life. Once when they're baptized, once when they get married, and once at their funeral!
- Even though Norway is a small country, the language and culture are very diverse. I think it may be because so many areas are isolated by the mountains, or fjords, or they're on islands, so before the time of the motor car, travel between regions was difficult. They actually have two different official languages, but nobody really speaks either one - each town or area has their own dialect, but the dialogs are not just a pronunciation thing, they have completely different basic words for things like "how" and "where".
OK... I'll stop now, but I may have to check out this book just for the fun of it.
I never did see a birch whisk while I was there - the one we had was like along stick or handle with a coiled wire thing on the end. Sorta like this:
http://www.spoilthecook.com/cw2/Assets/product_full/sauce%20master.jpg
Sorry to pummel you with so much Norwegian trivia, but I really enjoyed this post!
:-)
Cat
no subject
on 2016-02-29 05:36 am (UTC)And wow, an intervention for all the showering! I've heard that people with dry skin shouldn't shower daily and that people shouldn't wash their hair daily. But then I know people who shower every morning as part of their waking up ritual and I heard of one teenager who never felt clean once her hair had dried!
Fortunately, I think no one in our travel party wears make-up. So they won't be going through all that trouble just to accidentally give people the wrong impression! But Norwegians are probably used to tourists wearing make-up, and we'll be very touristy throughout our stay!
Thanks for the whisk picture--that's not the kind I use, but it's also hard to imagine making one of birch.
Okay, now I've googled it and found a birch whisk here: <http://www.giftchaletauburn.com/shop/index.php?main_page=product_info&products_id=147>
It looks like a narrow little whisk broom, but the site clearly states that you use it "for making smooth gravies." Interesting. I'm going to stick with the one I have which seems much easier to clean!
no subject
on 2016-02-29 07:30 pm (UTC)no subject
on 2016-02-29 08:38 pm (UTC)We'll be lots of places! It's a whirlwind trip for a friend to seek the Northern Lights for his 40th birthday--and pack in a lot of other adventures as well. He and his wife have invited some folks to join them, so there will be six of us. They have been to Scandinavia many times, and they especially love Iceland, but I think the rest of us are new to the area. The closest Robin and I have been before is probably the Netherlands.
We fly into Oslo and spend one day there.
Then we fly way north to Kirkenes and spend a couple of days there looking for Northern lights, but also driving husky sleds, touring a snow hotel, and other wintry fun.
Then we fly to Tromsø where we hang out for two more days. Again, this is a great site for checking out Northern lights.
Then we spend four days on the Hurtigruten cruise ship/cargo ship. You don't even have to be on deck to see the sky--the top floor has lots of floor-to-ceiling windows. And they make announcements when there are Northern lights to be viewed.
Hmm, I've looked it up and we will be docked at Trondheim from 06:30 to 10:00 am one day. And some of us will jump off the ship and run around at stops like this, but won't have time for anything big, though we do enjoy walking around and maybe stopping in at a grocery store or something. It might even be light the whole time for this stop!
The ship drops us off in Bergen one night and we leave for home the next day (so no time in Bergen, really).
no subject
on 2016-03-01 07:38 am (UTC)When I lived there, I had many friends who had the Hurtigruten on their bucket lists, so I think you'll have a good time. And if I only had a few hours to spend in Trondheim, I think I'd try to see the cathedral. There's an open air market in the city square too - but I'm not sure if it's open during the winter or not.
But wherever you go - if you want to try the brown cheese - ask for "vafler med brunost" and be prepared for something completely different! Hope you have a great time and get to see the northern lights. Funny... I never saw them while I was there - I did see them in upstate NY once though!
And I don't know if you'll get a chance, but if you do, you might want to try riding a "spark" - it's a funny little kicksled, and it was my main mode of transportation in the winter. Also lots of fun!
Hope you have a fantastic trip!
no subject
on 2016-03-01 03:19 pm (UTC)Thanks for the other advice as well!
no subject
on 2016-03-01 08:25 pm (UTC)no subject
on 2016-03-01 08:36 pm (UTC)In Belgium, I found three kinds of waffles--the kind in America, fruit-filled, and a lightly sugar-coated kind. The last was sold still hot in French* fry bags from food carts in all kinds of places, even train stations. You could smell them a mile away. I found a recipe, and first you make a yeast dough, then a quick-bread dough, then mix them together--yikes, not a fast food!
*Fries were supposedly invented in Belgium, so they are not French fries. Just fries (frites). You could get them with ketchup, but mostly they were served with mayonnaise-based sauces.
no subject
on 2016-02-28 07:11 am (UTC):-)
Cat
no subject
on 2016-02-29 05:25 am (UTC)